Published on: January 18, 2014

Pallium India was privileged to associate with MOSC Medical College, Kolencheri, to conduct a two-day palliative care training program for the house surgeons who had just started on their one-year rotating internship. Dr Rajagopal, Dr Nandini and Mr Jayakrishnan spent two days with the 101 house surgeons and with their many mentor-faculty members. The program was interactive and the enthusiasm in the audience was infectious.

Here are some of the responses from the participants:

• “Totally new outlook on patient care. I hope I will be able to practise all that you taught me.”
• “The session on communication was the most useful for me. So also, the different domains of suffering and the management of pain.”
• “I always smile a lot and am not able to exercise my authority over patients. I had thought it was my weakness. Now I understand that these were my strengths. Thank you very much for teaching us empathy.”
• “Yesterday I smiled more at my patients and got more smiles back. The patients felt more at ease; they started coming out with more of what they feel. Thank you for reminding me to smile.”

The participants also gave a lot of constructive feedback. One person said that he hated all lectures, and recommended that we include more videos. Several other participants gave us the same advice. We were also told where the program “dragged” a little and where it had to be made more interesting. But over all, the response was very warm and invigorating.

There was one comment that deserves particular mention: “Why is palliative care not included in the medical curriculum?”

Well, Pallium India has done its bit. A working group with national representation organized by it, with the involvement of the Government of India, have prepared curricula and submitted it to the Medical Council of India and Indian Nursing Council. Let us hope they will act on it.